Trend & Mind-Set that India ’ s Central Science & Technology Sector & Further Need

The ability to innovate and deploy globally competitive technologies has been recognized as the next key driver of global economic change in the emerging knowledge economy. While science is scholarship driven, technology and innovation are market and competition driven, respectively. Currently, Indian Research and Development landscape is largely influenced by the character of public funded research and selection of RD from creation to commercialization and value creation. Thiswould call for paradigm shifts in approaches of planning for R&D in India during the Twelfth Five Year Plan period.


INTRODUCTION
The ability to innovate and deploy globally competitive technologies has been recognized as the next key driver of global economic change in the emerging knowledge economy. While science is scholarship driven, technology and innovation are market and competition driven, respectively. Currently, Indian Research and Development landscape is largely influenced by the character of public funded research and selection of R&D priorities is mostly supply driven. The private sector investment into R&D have been marginal. Therefore, demand driven component of R&D goals has been limited. Policy, strategy and tools are required to stimulate larger investment into demand driven R&D goals. Energy sector invests far too into R&D, although industrial turn over in the sector is extremely high. Promotion of public-private partnership into R&D and clean energy is a critical component of India's competitiveness in global trade and industrial growth. New strategies and tools are required to stimulate engagement of private sector into R&D and enhance the share of private sector investment from the current 26% of India's R&D spend to at least 50% during the 2012-17 period.
The larger share of public investments into R&D could also be leveraged by focusing of R&D for public and social 'good priorities of the country. There is an un-tapped opportunity for India to emerge as a global leader in affordable innovations under PPP by focusing on R&D for public and social goods in the areas of agriculture and food security, water, energy, affordable health care, education, environment, renovation of urban infrastructure, S&T inputs to rural development etc. Residual idealism among the youth and vast talent base offer an opportunity for the R&D sector in: the country to gain leadership in affordable and social innovations. Coming five years should lead to the creation of an innovation ecosystem most suited to the developmental phase of the country. Such an ecosystem should be complete with new responses to risk averse nature of the society, delivery models for innovative deployment of technologies, business models for financing deployment of innovations and adjustments in governance and management models for supporting strategic goals of innovations. The approach for R&D sector should address all' stages of life cycles of ideas; from creation to commercialization and value creation. This ' would call for paradigm shifts in approaches of planning for R&D in India during the Twelfth Five Year Plan period.

OBJECTIVE
A Paradigm shift in approach for the Science and Technology sector is attempted below to focus on an output directed development path strategy rather than the present input driven model. Such changes are essential for making a tangible and traceable change in the socio-economic scene of the country. While basic research would need necessarily an input-led growth path, differences in approach through output directed model would be required for connecting knowledge and wealth generating activities of the country. Supply side approach for promotion of advanced basic research should be further enabled with tools for demand side planning for innovations and technology development.

METHODOLOGY
The structure and work culture within the R&D sector in the country are supportive of transactions of knowledge for money and technology transfer ideologies. Success of this model has been limited so far. In the selection of R&D priori ties and goals, strategic approaches and time bound delivery of outputs are not generally factored into. Whenever the participation of the user sector in selection of R&D priorities has been ensured, the usability of the R&D outputs increases significantly, a relationship model involving all stake holders engaged in the conversion of concepts into commercial realities has been far more successful than the transaction models deployed in the R&D sector in the country. Several countries have successfully developed relationship models to connect R&D outputs to national goals and economic development processes. Israel is highly successful in creating wealth out of innovations. The approach of the Twelfth Five Year Plan for the R&D sector encrypted such global best models for leveraging R&D outputs for national economic development. Below are some strategic concerns that need to be addressed for strengthening the eco-system and the proposed approaches for the way forward.

Enrichment of Knowledge base.
Natural evolution of Basic research in India during the last three decades is inspired by the directions and priorities of the industrialized world, but without the matching linkages among academy-research and industry. Various factors have limited the global competitiveness of India in basic research. Although there are some general improvements during the Eleventh Five Year Plan period with respect to publications and patents on' account of several measures, Indian basic research has been mostly supply driven rather than catering to the increasing demands; both in terms of quantity and quality. Indian systems for supporting basic research has so far not adopted adequate measures for promoting institutional joint collaborative research with active schools in the global scene in futuristic frontier areas of science. The multi disciplinary approach towards solving India relevant specific problems as challenges needs to be undertaken in a systematic manner.
The approach therefore should be to (i) reduce the artificial divide between academic teaching and research institutions in India, (ii) spot, attract, nurture, and encourage sparks and talent in scientific research from under graduate to post graduate research through a lifelong learning approach, (iii) Identify areas of national interest, gaps for promotion of basic research and improving the quality of science education, (iv) focus on oriented basic research for: meeting the national priorities on food and nutrition security, affordable health care, water, energy and environment security etc., (v) Incentivize the sharing and collaboration of multidisciplinary approach to enriching the knowledge base through the global integration, and (vi) participate in Global Research Consortia in creating mega facilities for basic research.

University, industry, and Scientific Establishment Collaboration
India has the third largest education system in the world. A conducive research sector requires cutting edge research universities, industrial R&D Centres and a network of Government Laboratories with wellmaintained infrastructure and liberal funding, working together towards defined objectives. Further, effective mechanisms of collaboration need to be created for universities and industry bodies so that research output and innovations can effectively be commercialized and transformed into marketable products and services for last mile benefits.
The approach therefore should be to (i) encourage universities and research centers to focus expertise and resources on key industrial focus areas, (ii) encourage flows of knowledge, created by universities and scientific research establishments, into industry, (iii) help universities create industry-ready talent pools, with practice-relevant skills, (iv) use university expertise to upgrade industry talent, (v) encourage universities and industries to apply faculty expertise in specific, operations-relevant problem areas, (vi) synergise the expertise in universities and research establishments -in areas such as manufacturing, rCT, and industrial management -to enhance the efficiency and productivity of existing industries vi) identify, develop, and scale programmes and projects (such as new research parks) that draw on and synergise complementary capacities within research institutes and the private sector vii) draw on industry practitioners' experience and expertise to develop and advance research objectives at scientific establishments, teaching curriculum development and upgrades at universities, and (viii) utilize industry infrastructure for up scaling of technologies.

Incentivizing R&D in Public and Private Sector
There is an urgent need for attracting larger investments of private sector into R&D. whereas the private sector investments into R&D in most globally competing economies are in the range of 1.2 to 3.0 of GDP, the corresponding investment of the Indian private sector never exceeded 0.2. While public funded institutions are generating technology leads from Public funded R&D, the levels of utilization of such technology leads by commercial enterprises have been limited. The present models of research funding by and large in the country do not facilitate the venture funding of translational research in the private sector, whereas several global models do so. Current fiscal incentives for attraction of investments into R&D by way of tax benefits have led only to marginal results and the linkages between academia-research and industry remain under developed and weak. The investments into/by the Public Sector Undertakings for R&D have also been much lower than desired. The State led stimulus for innovative products through procurement guidelines, technology acquisitions or facilitating FDI in research in the country has not been explored adequately. The systematic encouragement to the Indian diaspora also has not been fully exploited. Stimulation of the entrepreneurial environment, reduction of the stigma on failure, a strong angel and venture capital supporting system to back up innovations and access to assured market for products of innovation are some key elements of a well designed innovation ecosystem. The Twelfth Five Year Plan programmes of R&D sector should look beyond the generation of technology leads, patents and intellectual products. It should design and position sufficient incentives for not only R&D but also for the utilization of R&D results leading to an economic outcome.
There is therefore a need to create a vibrant landscape of Public-Private Partnership and an enabling framework for attracting investment from the industrial sector, both public and private sector into R&D system and incentivize the same for linking development with technology sector. This would include: (i) creating early 'trial' markets around national priorities and allowing private firms to recoup investments in R&D (ii) helping private companies access the best technical resources -increasing the chances of R&D success, reducing uncertainties, and incentivizing investment, (iii) enabling public and private sector companies to overcome risks in commercialization and value capture and (iv) making regulatory frameworks less complex, and more facilitative, for technological innovation in the industrial sector.

Improving the Flow of Technology
It is important that the development and results of affordable technology reach and positively affect the people at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) in the country. Currently, the technological innovations fail to be inclusive in nature and cater to only the affluent sections or people with relatively high levels of income in the economy. This is because these technological innovations tend to have a high R&D cost which has to be subsequently recovered when diffused in the economy. This high cost impedes the innovative developments to reach the needy and / or people with very low or no sources of income.
India is in a unique position to mount a strong initiative for affordable innovations for technologies for social and public good by taking advantages of a) Low expertise costs and b) Vast talent base. However, engagement of multiple stakeholders and creating Public-Private-Partnership for promoting people-centric research is a challenge to address national goals with specific targets in a time bound manner. While technologies for public, strategic and social goods would require collaborative excellence, competitive excellence models for private good would come from industrial sector, as is the case in most developed countries.
The proposed approach would therefore be to (i) engage multiple stakeholders and creating Public-Private-Partnerships to develop innovative business / engagement models to include all sections of the economy (ii) increase R&D penetration in in the MSME sector by developing institutional linkages with research & development establishments (iii) address the immediate technological barriers faced by some important needs and priorities of the country by setting up PAN India mission mode programmes for agriculture, food, water, energy, environment and affordable human health care and Techology Missions, (iv) create mechanisms for flow of technologies from strategic sector to non-strategic sectors for social and public good applications and vice versa, and (v) enhance the involvement of State S&T agencies to translate the technological developments for local reach.
Food security of India is closely related to development of technologies for increasing the agriculture outputs through process innovations for land saving and water use efficiency. This also calls for development and deployment of new agro biotechnology tools and precision agriculture for increasing the output of agriculture sector in the country by synergizing the strengths of institutions both under public and private sector and adopting a new approach for agriculture research and extension. With robust growth of economy, demands for research solutions for secondary agriculture are also expected to rise, which would open up several new avenues for research-industry partnership in the country and development of test beds for assessing the techno-commercial potentials of the technology leads under Public-Private-Partnership models.
To achieve optimal health for its people, India has unique challenges due to its large population, demographic transition and vulnerability to all epidemics. Elimination of endemic and pandemic diseases and controlling diabetes are the major areas which require immediate R&D interventions in a mission mode. Biomedical devices and instrumentation is another area of serious gap in the country. Therefore, breakthrough innovations, with appropriate stress on translational research for affordable health care, are the need of the hour and would call for new models and mechanisms for evaluating technologies for improving healthcare at individual and public health level, fostering academia -industry linkage; and linking technology developers with industry for translation of lead products/processes. Given the enormity of the challenges ahead, strengthening of public funded Bio-medical research system, both in scale and quality is essential, besides ncentivizing the industrial R&D through joint research between public and private sector under the PPP model.
Water challenge is a major national issue in the country both in terms of quality and availability. Quality related issues on account of contamination of water require a set of technological solutions different from those needed to address quantum related challenges of water starved regions. Sustainabi1ity of research led solutions depends on interface of technology with policy and societal behavior. Water related technologies form an ideal theme for building state-centre partnerships. The challenge therefore is to convert research outputs from the laboratories into revenue models based solutions in a coordinated manner among the relevant departments in both states and centre for innovative deployment under real field conditions.
The Energy sector R&D activities in India is dominated by the public sector, however, the size of investments are much smaller, both in absolute terms and as percentage of the sales turnover. Our expenditure on energy R&D excepting for Atomic Energy, which provides less than 3 percent of our total electrical energy supply, is miniscule compared to what industry and governments spend in developed countries. Biomass and coal, which are the mainstays of the Indian energy system, receive little attention in terms of R&D. A PAN India effort on energy research with effective coordination would seem appropriate. Right sized technologies for decentralized applications for energy generation from Trend & Mindset that India's Central 29 Journal of Technology Management for Growing Economies, Volume 9, Number 1, April 2018 agricultural biomass will be a valuable contribution and efforts are already on way towards development of technologies for high rate bio-methanation from agro residues. Bio-refinery is an emerging theme. Viable technologies complete with solutions for meeting discharge standards would be a valuable step forward. Development of innovative climate resilient technologies should find larger share on the overall energy R&D front. Once again development of such technologies must be backed up with suitable schemes for supporting deployment until sustainable revenue models are standardized and market forces propagate technology utilization. MSME sector in India which is a strong pillar of economic growth is characterised by low technology levels with some exceptions. This acts as a major handicap in the growth of MSME sector in the emerging global market and is therefore, seen as the next frontier for infusion of technology, While R&D has taken great strides in other fields, its penetration to the MSMEs has been very minimal. Despite efforts, institutional linkages with research & development establishments and industry (including MSEs) have not developed. The challenge therefore is to enable the MSMEs embrace the new technologies to leap frog and contribute significantly in the inclusive growth process.

Promoting Collaborations through Clusters
Collaborations can play a crucial role in stimulating innovations and fostering knowledge transfers which would foster interconnections that link intellectual, financial, human, and creative capital as well as unleash underutilized capital. Such enterprises could take the shape of physical or virtual clusters, which bring together research, business, risk capital, and creativity to turn ideas into products, processes, and services. In the Open Innovation Model, by using an "open source" and collaborative approach, organizations could expect to develop affordable products for the world which otherwise would not be a cost effective option for many organizations. Many clusters and collaborative initiatives to foster innovation have begun to operate in the country. Government needs to take appropriate steps to promote the growth of such collaborative initiatives, both in the physical and virtual domains. The National Innovation Council (NInC) is in the process of facilitating the setting up of industry and university, based clusters to spur innovations.

Intellectual Property Rights
Management of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) has become extremely important in the new knowledge economy with global competition. An adequate right on the intellectual property produced by an innovator enables innovators to' recoup their investments and make profits. Thus IPR spurs innovation. Good national IPR systems also enable knowledge of technological advances to be accessible through the patent system to others who can build on them. Thus innovation can be further facilitated. To obtain both these benefits for innovation, India must improve its management of IPR. On one hand, the administrative machinery for IPR management must be considerably strengthened and professionalized-DIPP has taken up this task. At the same time, India must engage with confidence in the evolution of international frameworks for improving IPR management.
Holders of IPR have incentives to strengthen and extend their monopolies. However monopolies can restrain competition and further innovation, and thus tend to increase costs for customers. This is the fear even in the West, with respect to pharmaceuticals for example Moreover, the concept of monopolizing knowledge that underlies prevalent models of IPR, can have perverse effects when it is extended to areas of traditional knowledge, preventing poorer people from continuing to use their own knowledge without payments to those who have 'patented' it under IPR. New models of collaborative innovation are emerging, such as Open Source Drug Discovery-an Indian innovation, that reduce costs of innovation and increase its speed. Concepts of IPR will have to be developed to suit such new models of innovation in which, incidentally, India has great stakes because of their potential to produce 'frugal' innovations for inclusive growth. Therefore, as India aims to become amongst the global leaders in innovation, it will also have to be amongst the leaders in efficient management of and innovations in IPR.

Platform for Best Practices and Innovations
Currently, there are many enterprises across the country which are delivering benefits to citizens and meeting the challenges of inclusion in areas such as health, education energy, low-cost housing, sanitation, and more through innovative solutions. Often these go beyond the formal confines of R&D labs to include innovations in public service delivery or organisational innovations in local communities aimed at inclusion. However, there is no aggregated platform or single repository to collate and disseminate these best practices and ideas. Also, while some such innovations manage to gamer attention on a national scale, most of these workable solutions remain confined' to their local contexts and don't achieve economies of scale because of the lack of a single platform for sharing these best practices among multiple stakeholders. Strengthening the innovation eco- system requires a platform for information sharing and dissemination to ensure: (1) improved access to knowledge and (2) Support in the form of resources, linkages, mentoring and outreach. Greater knowledge of innovations can stimulate their adoptions and adaptations on a large scale.
This decentralized, open, and networked model would enable information sharing on innovations and collaboration among stakeholders on an unprecedented scale.

Improving Governance in S&T Institutions:
Optimum utilization of appropriate institutional framework created to enhance India's R&D capability need to undergo critical review to ensure that the much needed resources, both financial and human, are deployed in an optimal fashion. This may even call for foreclosing some of the programmes which have outlived their relevance. It is critical to leverage the industrial infrastructure and create appropriate institutional framework and organizational mechanisms cutting across departments to derive maximum benefits of the investments.
It would be desirable to (i) bring in radical but participative transformation, which is multifaceted and multidirectional for structural changes in rebuilding and transforming existing institutions, (ii) provide greater autonomy to S&T institutions including de-bureaucratization, (iii) provide flexibility to younger generation of scientists to pursue their creative ideas, (iv) enhance synergy for inter-institutional collaborative research, (v) promote setting up of newer world class publicly owned and privately managed institutions and (vi) bring in process reforms, particularly with relation to HR, finance, procurement and performance appraisal.

Use of GIS for Development
Geographical Information System (GIS) has assumed a critical role in the planning process and is the key to better decision-making. GIS is also now powering more open government and thereby leveraging economic and social development and reaching the gains of development to the grass-root level and also bringing in accountability and responsibility of public activities. It provides a much needed foothold for solving complex spatial problems: such as tracking the air, surface and groundwater flows and concentrations of pollutants, developing population distribution projections, preparing land use scenarios and anticipating future land development; developing urban growth models etc.
Therefore it would be necessary to (i) make available the spatial information, and the dissemination of this information to all concerned by develop-ment of a centralized GIS with a common IT platform for accessing information, resulting in streamlined processes and greater operational efficiencies (ii) frame the Policies that support the necessary sharing of data across the stakeholders, data interoperability and standards (iii) fully integrate the global positioning system and remote sensing imagery with GIS and radical new forms of display on a 3D view of the terrain (iv) educate potential users on the utilization of GIS data.

Supportive Financial System
Innovation requires a financial system which is supportive and inclusive and which provides the necessary risk capital to spur innovations and enterprises. Venture Funds are recognized globally as the most suitable form of providing risk capital for the growth of innovative technology and breakthrough ideas. While India is amongst the top recipients in Asia for Venture Funds and Private Equity Funds so far, these investments need to be focused on small early stage start-ups and not only into relatively large and 'safer' investments. To have a greater impact existing funding options, especially made available by the Government need to increased India's dependency on foreign VC/PE funds and almost no domestic venture capital needs t0 be addressed.
Despite the growth in the VC industry in India and the complementary increase in government schemes, the seed funding stage continues to be severely hampered. Also, it is especially crucial to provide funding for stimulating innovations that will produce socially useful outcomes for poorer people and enterprises which are focused on delivering this. In light of this, the Indian innovation eco-system requires early stage funds acting as angel investors. A dedicated fund, seeded by the Government, and targeted at promoting innovative initiatives that focus on inclusive growth could play a crucial role.
In addition, there is a need to take up policy initiatives for grants to private sector for undertaking R&D in public and social goods, establishment of test beds for indigenous technologies developed by public funded institutions, competitive grant system for states for innovative deployment of indigenous technologies, and fostering partnerships between R&D institutions under socio-economic ministries of the Government of India and academic institutions.
Regular, rather frequent interaction with G-20 and SAARC countries would be needed for keeping update our S&T plan. The Department of Science & Technology New Delhi could be the nodal agency in this regards.
Hence a need is required for a coherent S&T plan; though S&T is very vast & wiode and difficult to bring in simile among various sectors.

RESULTS OF ABOVE SAID RECOMMENDATIONS
Ideas for a coherent & pragmatic approach in making India's S&T Plan more efficient: -Science & Technology is so vast, wide and diversified that it is not only in-comprehensible by any a single individual but also for a group of individuals besides its unique explicit or implicit presence encompassing across all the sectors. Bringing -in a total coherence like a Laser/Maser beam would be difficult as sectors by nature are so varied besides the canopy is covered with infinite number of themes having infinite possibilities. For example: Atomic Energy cannot be compared with Space; Space with Earth Sciences and for that matter Earth Sciences with Bio-technology. So much of what has been put down are from extempore thoughts emanating out of work experience supported by some facts and does not cover nitty-gritties of the entire gamut.
Underlined are therefore few an issues which may be given importance in pin pointing our National S&T Plan (which revolves essentially around six central scientific Departments/ Ministries) broadly highlighting on : - T. In water management we may like to point out that we are using water for personal and farming purposes (here we are wasting up to some extent our sources/natural resources, not using for other benefits). We can transport it either through the big pipes of large/small rivers. This is being done in Poland which had helped produce the electricity when transported the water through pipes from one place to the other. We can use it like other liquids we transport from one place to the other. This model in India can solve the energy problem and will also contribute in infra and service sectors too. U. Borehole technology used in coal mines to identify proper railway tracks ( out some reports on a few key areas but unfortunately these are not only dated old but prepared in isolation-such reports need to be constantly updated and unless these are embossed and included in the Action Plan of Scientific Ministries -would continue to be bookish exercise) AC.Cost effective, region specific ,local specific--Fuel cells (CECRI, Karaikudi, IIT, Kanpur , MNRE---IIT Kanpur may co-ordinate) AD. Design of a sustainable management plan for Urban Household Organic Waste Management system---TIFAC to co-ordinate for a model plan/pilot exercise involving Local Municipality -so faithfully that it gets approval from Urban Development & Panchayati Raj Ministry ) AE. Development of algorithm in predicting magnitude of earthquake in NE region -presumably some work has already started using neural network setup by India Meteorological Department -needs consolidation using chain of computational facilities already available---a basic research work: which DST may co-ordinate for bench level fool proof design network). AF. Shikimic acid intermediate :-a frontier area of research of finding prospective molecules in Pharmacy----(DST to co-ordinate for giving this a shape with IICT , Hyderabad , IIT ,Kanpur Reliance in private sector; NCL ,Pune may also be thought of -but its emphasis has all along been on catalyst and polymers   2. ** Current visible outputs of some of the DSIR recognized R&D units: -

HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
• In 2012-Indian Pharma Firm launched fixed dose combination antimalarial drug Synriam that successfully treats both Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum malaria. Since its launch it has treated more than a million patients.

SEED COATING TECHNOLOGY
• Development of Genius Coat L-431: A seed coating polymer having organic active that stimulates genes for root proliferation, seedling growth and final yield enhancement • Development of DISCO GUARD: A special seed coating polymer that has insect repellent activity. Very useful in seed storage in godowns. • Development of ONX entrustment: This is seed encrusting of Onion and Cumin seeds to add weight and better flow ability for better sowing in the field.

ORGANIC MANURE
• Development of Earth Essentials -a balanced blend of 100% bio-organic materials, micro nutrients & beneficial micro-flora, suitable for all kinds of plants and home gardens. banana plantation. Sampooprna is pelleted bio-fertilizer with beneficial organisms along with all the micro and macro nutrients.

DEFENSE SECTOR
• BH100 Rear Dump Truck-biggest mechanical-drive truck built for the first time in India. This 100 Ton range truck has an advantage of higher payload capacity and could replace 85 Ton trucks in open-cast projects resulting in lower cost per ton with 25 percent increase in productivity. • INS Sumitra, one of the country's largest offshore patrol vessels (OPV), designed and constructed indigenously, the 105m-long anti-piracy vessel has successfully completed its sea trials and is likely to be commissioned by the Navy shortly.

RENEWABLE ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT SECTOR
• Wind Electric Generators Pawan Shakthi (PS)-1800kW PS-1800 kW WEGs are designed to endure extreme environmental conditions. The WEG is suitable for 50Hz and 60Hz grids.

• An indigenous method of concentrating solar energy by the Linear Fresnel
Reflector (LFR) has been developed. • Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus. In this vehicle there will be zero pollution since the product of cold combustion is water. The CNG based bus features Hydrogen stored in high pressure bottles on the roof.

ELECTRONICS AND OPTICAL EQUIPMENT
• Battlefield management systems (BMS) and Tactical

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)
• Development of Algorithms for Modulation and demodulation Software Defined Radio applications and High speed DSP libraries for use in radar signal processing, Hyperspeed Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) engines to process digitized data at 1.33 Gsps. • Algorithms to estimate pressure and cross-sectional area of a coronary artery using electromagnetic field analysis and MEMS based sensors.

PETROLEUM SECTOR
• Design and development of "Bharat Metal Cutting gas (BMCG) a patented product from Bharat Petroleum Corporation limited (BPCL). • Development of bio-assisted processes for conversion of CO2 to hydrocarbons and fuels at Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) • An Indian patent for generation of methane and humic acid from lignite has been developed by ONGC. • Developed application of latest techniques of Geochemistry for exploration and reservoir studies, process for produced formation water clarification to 10 parts per million (ppm) level, gelled fluid formulations to reduce wax deposition problems, and the well performance optimization measures by Oil India Limited (OIL) have led to improved production from many wells. OIL has also bagged the distinction of having the First Pilot plant in India for conversion of coal to oil.

STEEL SECTOR
• The SAIL R&D centre has made major efforts towards cost reduction, quality improvement and value-addition of products from SAIL plants and providing application engineering support to SAIL's products at customers' end. R&D centre along with steel plants, has taken initiatives to develop special steel products utilizing the modernized production facilities at steel plants.  NPL(I) signed the memoranda in 2008 to become a member of the project in the new area of Material Metrology since NPL(I) is the custodian of measurement standards for India an act of parliament. Initiative taken by individual scientist culminated to this prestigious position though further persuasion in participating International Inter comparisons were not followed due to lack of interest of the head of the organizations particularly in composites ; superconducting materials ; Electro ceramics ; spectrometry of synthetic polymers etc. Such practices (MOUs) need to be inculcated by other Scientific Departments /Labs of CSIR and even non-CSIR bodies. A holistic approach taking a long term view in these advanced areas need to be taken by a group of experts from related & interdisciplinary fields under the ages of DST.
While NPL(I) has the main mandate of maintaining, upgrading and disseminating measurement standards through its apex level calibration and certification facility to the industries for ISO certification giving the pathway for word class products for exports and revenue generation, wrong policies like converting it to a Ph.D degree producing institute or product oriented research(like solar cells which this organization is trying since 1970's with no remarkable output) or carbon products, has misled it to get proper output from this unique organization conceived by our earlier visionary leaders in the early days of our independence. In fact starting an Academy within CSIR for giving degrees was just to divert its original mandate when more than a thousand universities are there to produce such students.
54. On contrary, again, for example, the "White LED (Light Emitting Diode)" project (Costing in crores) trusted to NPL/CSIR could not yet come out with a marketable standard product. So there are strong contrasts & strong anomalies in the entire spectrum of Indian R&D. Perhaps except the Drugs & Pharma sector & too some extent chemical sector; no other sector (barring DAE & DOS) could make any a significant dent in the market through indigenous efforts. 55. Therefore we have to seriously look into whether the lacunae lies with delay in creating appropriate and sophisticated (like clean room etc.) infrastructure (attributable to archaic procedures) /money /quality manpower/quality scientific leadership. The characteristic difference between the activities of DAE(barring TIFR and some schemes of BARC like "Non Destructive Testing Facility" etc) and DOS is that their programmes are targeted enough with more emphasis on operation & timeliness than mere R&D whereas in National labs (or even other labs like IISc, Indian Association for Cultivation of Science , Kolkata, IITs etc&etc) ; the approach has always been so far mix of Basic+ Applied R&D which is (/are) difficult to be targeted /quantified and equable with the market. Hence the success stories of Atomic Energy or Space are much more than failures unlike Echelon-I/Echelon-II labs where unfortunately still the reverse trend is continuing. Today Indian consumers (particularly after the technical & market liberalization in non -strategic sectors since early '90's) care less whether a product&/process is indigenous /from abroad. We are at a co-ordinate where it is now a buyer's market. No single group or a series of group would be able to arrive at workable solution(s) as the very "S&T" sector is not only too wide but highly diversified; interdisciplinary. This has to be a continuous process. Unless a strong initiative comes from top, this also may not fructify. We have another intrinsic dogma and i.e. unlike other advanced countries we are in to too many things and if possible would like to be in everything (!) Perhaps during '60s-70's we really needed "Institutionalization" of S&T but with growing interdisciplinarities & cross flow of technologies we may segregating S&T in two segments -one is R, D&D and other is the service wing of "S&T" (like developments of appropriate Kinematics, Remote sensing, Lasers, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, Cellular biology or could be that of "Antrix"-Department of Space). In addition, to bring in an overall strength into the entire spectrum of Central sector S&T-non-strategic part of Defense may start talking with Civil ("Akash" Missile & the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM 3000Km over the sea) -Chandipur, Orissa range are good & positive examples) and Civil also to Defence. We might also require to take up some sort of periodical international conferences (sector -wise, theme wise) with SAARC and G-20 countries taking a conclave approach at the behest of DST & DSIR; this might help us to make our "S&T" plan more realistic and updated. A task force might not be out of place to advice on turnaround plans of many a scientific Departments & National level Labs etc.in view of the technological liberalization viz-a-viz open market economy. This task force may also look for liberal policies that would help smooth exchange of scientists within intra & intercountries. In nutshell, to narrow down the infinite ideas alongside infinite scopes to a prioritized and actionable agenda ; at the behest of SAC-PM/DST or an independent of group of S&T professionals outside govt's ambit may be formed as a conclave to cover major areas of concern like (i) Energy independency (ii) Emphasising more on developing(through Central Electronics Ltd-CEL, Sahibabad or Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bangalore and Semi-Conductor Complex Ltd, Mohali In such a council "Maharatna" PSUs along with "Mini-Ratna" PSUs, DRDO and Transport (all the three mode) may too form a part. 68. The present S&T policy perhaps would require to be moderated by adding a sub-set on sectoral goals to be achieved over next 5-7 years. By virtue of extremely diversified nature that "S&T has; it appears non-realistic to set any National goal on "S&T" per-se.